Ms. Wakem serves as CFO of University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. In this role, she is responsible for the financial performance of Nevada’s largest public hospital, which serves hundreds of thousands of patients each year. Since joining in 2017, she has played an instrumental role in efforts to expand its footprint by opening new clinics and service lines while introducing groundbreaking clinical technology. She has worked directly with clinicians to secure purchases of vital equipment, helping the medical center become a statewide leader in robotic surgery, and in 2024 the hospital became the first in Nevada to introduce the da Vinci 5 robotic surgery system. Ms. Wakem’s financial leadership also supported the newly renovated UMC Cardiovascular Center, with state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization suites and comprehensive electrophysiology services, as well as a full modernization of its 26-acre campus, the largest renovation project in the medical center’s 94-year history. She often plays an active role in individual patient cases, particularly for long-term burn patients at the UMC Lions Burn Care Center, working with families to remove barriers to specialized care. Before joining the system, Ms. Wakem served as assistant CFO at Tenet’s Arrowhead Hospital in Glendale, Ariz. and Arizona Heart Hospital in Phoenix, director of finance at MemorialCare Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills, Calif. and controller at HCA Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas. In 2026, the hospital earned Magnet recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
